Florida Poly Pairs With Estonian University On Driverless Car Research

A mockup of the ISEAUTO, designed at Tallinn Technical University in Estonia.

Tallinn Technical University

Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland has a new partner in autonomous vehicle research--a university in Estonia that’s built a prototype of a driverless car.

Tallinn Technical University’s ISEAUTO uses open source software. For students learning about driverless cars, it’s a good fit.

“In the U.S, most the AVs are being built by private entities and you don’t have easy access to the inner workings of the vehicle,” said Rahul Razdan, who oversees special projects at Florida Poly.

At about 11 feet long and five feet wide, ISEAUTO looks like a small tram. With standing room for about four passengers, Razdan said it could be a shuttle for transit riders on the last mile of their journey.

“That’s likely where this technology will become, as it were, real well before the car that takes you everywhere just by saying something,” he said.

House and Senate Republicans are proposing the creation of a “Statewide Alternative Transportation Authority” that would oversee developing transportation systems for such things as autonomous vehicles.